The gentleman who claims to have ridden an Aethos and a knock-off and pronounced them to be identical in every regard ... Yeah. You believe what you want. That myth about factories making extras and smuggling them out the back door to sell at a cut price ... I have never bought it. If I had real Aethos frames from the factory ... I would build them up as real Aethos, and sell them for almost full price, because well ... that's what they were. Why take a huge price cut? Only someone who has never done business would think otherwise.
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One it's not a claim but a fact that I have ridden both bikes. Two, like you mentioned in your Cervelo ramblings, a knock off Aethos or whatever bike could be indistinguishable to us non pros and yeah maybe a pro putting down 500 watts will feel it but here is where I know from actually riding both bikes that you are so ill informed because the Aethos to begin with while stiff for its weight, in my personal real life experience is pretty noddle like at the bottom bracket and the rear. No I couldn't objectively measure each bikes stiffness, but to me and my 138lb body it felt identical when putting down power. More than likely the Sohtea is just a Aethos clone, yeah sure I will give you that but this is like me debating torque vectoring in a Kia versus an Audi and just because one is named Quattro saying the other system is vastly inferior. I think the idea that ONLY Specialized uses a certain carbon weave or resin or only they know how to lay the carbon to get the feel of an Aethos is moronic because at the end of the day whether it be a car or a bike yeah, certain manufactures will do certain things better but the concepts are widely known and not proprietary or even patented. We can debate on the customer service and warranty for a Chinese brand like Sohtea and we can debate even if a sub $2K frame is worth the savings compared to the "real deal", but again as someone who have the "real" 685g Fact 10r Aethos I can tell you that for me and probably for every member on here that the Sohtea feels exactly the same.